{"id":344729,"date":"2026-06-02T21:10:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T15:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=344729"},"modified":"2026-06-02T21:10:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T15:40:47","slug":"after-pope-slams-ai-can-employees-request-religious-ai-exemptions-at-work-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/after-pope-slams-ai-can-employees-request-religious-ai-exemptions-at-work-national\/","title":{"rendered":"After Pope slams AI, can employees request religious AI exemptions at work? – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Some Canadians can have a case for requesting religious exemptions from artificial intelligence usage within the workplace, following formal Catholic Church warnings from Pope Leo XIV concerning the technology.<\/p>\n

But experts caution that requesting religious exemptions will not be easy, and the query of where reasonable accommodation lies with an emerging and largely unregulated technology continues to be murky.<\/p>\n

The Pope\u2019s sweeping manifesto calls for the robust regulation of artificial intelligence, warning in his 42,300-word encyclical letter<\/a> that \u201ctechnology will not be simply a tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it becomes the usual by which all the things is judged, it begins to dictate what matters and what might be discarded, reducing creation to an object of exploitation and human beings to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency,\u201d the Pope said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is required is a more energetic political involvement that’s able to slowing things down when all the things is accelerating,\u201d Pope Leo said within the text, entitled Magnifica Humanitas<\/em>, or Magnificent \u200bHumanity.<\/p>\n

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He also states there’s a \u201csubtler danger\u201d for AI usage, calling for \u201crobust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that doesn’t abdicate its \u200bresponsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leo also called upon AI developers to work for the common good moderately than profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because the creator of a creative or literary work must consider the values it conveys, so developers are called to embed values of their projects with due seriousness: with transparency, responsibility toward affected communities and careful attention to making sure that what’s being cultivated is a real good.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Prime Minister Mark Carney \u2014 who’s a practising Catholic \u2014 is poised to disclose his government\u2019s long-awaited AI strategy this week following repeated delays.<\/p>\n

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He discussed the subject of artificial intelligence with Pope Leo on Friday, with Carney \u201cwelcoming the Pope\u2019s leadership on this field.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey discussed the imperative that AI must serve humanity, starting with the protection of the person. Prime Minister Carney expressed Canada\u2019s desire to steer internationally on responsible AI and tools to learn the worldwide community,\u201d the Prime Minister\u2019s Office said in a readout of the decision.<\/p>\n

The federal government is anticipated to announce its long-awaited national AI strategy this week.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Canada\u2019s national assembly of the bishops of the Catholic Church, also described the Pope\u2019s letter by saying it \u201cplaces the dignity of the human person on the centre as the standards for guiding technical progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church\u2019s social teaching accompanies these transformations, pointing to the common good, solidarity and subsidiarity as the basic benchmarks for understanding and interpreting the transformation currently underway,\u201d based on the assembly\u2019s media release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\tCan employees now refuse to make use of AI?\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Formal religious writings on the topic might leave some Canadians wondering whether or not they can seek a non secular exemption from using artificial intelligence of their jobs.<\/p>\n

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The Canadian Human Rights Act<\/a> goals to \u201cextent the laws in Canada that proscribe discrimination,\u201d while the Ontario Human Rights Code<\/a> is a statute that states that \u201cevery body has a right to equal treatment with respect to the occupancy of accommodation, without discrimination due to race, ancestry, place of birth, color, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability or the receipt of public assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christopher Achkar, a managing partner at Achkar Law, states that those laws could potentially be cited by Canadian employees in a request for religious accommodation.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmployees can cite those religious reasons as reasons to be accommodated and never need to use AI,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause these two pieces of laws protect against discrimination on the premise of those grounds, employers need to accommodate those employees once they cite that they’re a part of those groups that subscribe to those beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are religious groups, for instance, and on this case not using AI for religious reasons, then the code protects them from being terminated, discriminated against or treated in another way or adversely due to these reasons, so employers need to accommodate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Puneet Tiwari, an employment lawyer and partner of Leavitt LLP, said this is applicable to an employer unless there’s \u201cundue hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This refers back to the point at which an employer is not any longer legally required to accommodate an worker.<\/p>\n

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